Holly Holm knew Ronda Rousey was turning. The unbeatable America’s sweetheart would straighten, then try to face her largely unknown, largely forgettable challenger. And the instant Rousey’s face peaked into view, Holm’s left foot brutally connected, a deciding shot to the star, an end to the match and the reign, a kick that kick-started the era of Holly Holm.

Holm’s swipe and ensuing KO of Rousey in the second round of Saturday night’s (EST) UFC bout in Melbourne, Australia, handed her the bantamweight title, as well as the unofficial title of biggest UFC upset ever. According to Vegas, she was as high as a 20-1 underdog, which doesn’t really do justice of how wildly shocking the outcome was. Twitter lit up with Buster Douglas comparisons, with the inhuman reigning champ (then Mike Tyson) deigning to fight an inferior on very foreign ground (then Tokyo) and somehow not pulverizing the foe. The likening holds up, because Rousey was every bit the superman Tyson was.

Rousey was a god. It was not a question of if, but when a challenger would be mercifully put down by the former Judo Olympian. And the answer was, nearly always, startlingly soon. If Rousey allowed her opponent to hang around, it had an inevitable, evil-villain quality to it: She was simply prolonging the pain, which just happened to lengthen the match itself. She was a 5-foot-7, 135-pound machine, had gone through 12 matches without blemish, had already looked toward Hollywood as her next opponent because maybe that would actually challenge her.

That Holm’s foot, not fist, halted Rousey’s enshrinement added an ironic twist to the regicide. The only way Holm could win, some argued, was to keep Rousey at a distance with her long reach, to pound from afar with fists that had been molded by her boxing career, which began when she was just 20.

She debuted as a boxer, in 2002, quickly punching her way up the Albuquerque circuit. She was named Ring Magazines’ female Fighter of Year twice — in 2005 and 2006 — but was hesitant to leave New Mexico, fighting all but three of her bouts in her home state.

The “Preacher’s Daughter” — a nickname that stuck when fans learned her father was a preacher at a church in New Mexico — became undisputed welterweight champion in 2008, eventually racking up 19 boxing world titles. She was enshrined in the New Mexico Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013, which for some is a career zenith. But she had a mixed-martial arts career to help her rise even higher.

As she was dipping her foot into the boxing water in 2002, she had been sidetracked with a foray into kickboxing.

“I started aerobics to keep in shape, saw the [kickboxing] class, thought it looked pretty cool, so I thought I’d try it for one fight and see what it was like,” Holm says in her online biography.

The seeds were planted. Kicks were added to her repertoire, and it was only natural she join MMA in 2011. Her first fight was not the blink-and-you-miss-it Rousey variety; it was a masterclass of chipping away, an array of kicks that had challenger Christina Domke calling it quits in the second round.

Holm officially ended boxing in 2013 to concentrate on MMA, which she ascended without splash. Her methodical bruising of opponents never failed her, garnering wins by a thousand cuts and not one blow. She had entered the octagon nine times, had exited the octagon on her own feet nine times, had won nine times. Then came Rousey. Then came the foot-to-face that brought down a legend and created another.

“We figured [Rousey’s] aggression was coming, if it didn’t, that’s OK. But with footwork and my career we figured she wouldn’t give me that space,” Holm told the Associated Press. “There’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but it was all worth it.”